Francis J. DeToma

Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences

Frank DeToma researches the role of morphogens in cell-sorting processes in the cellular slime mold D. discoideum. DeToma is most interested in "the protein-folding problem," i.e., how the chemical composition of a protein determines its three-dimensional shape.

Former director of Mount Holyoke College's new $34.5-million unified science complex, DeToma notes that the facility allows MHC students to receive their science education "in a physical environment that matches the intellectual state of the sciences." The center is a metaphor for the way mathematics and the sciences are blending into an "integrated, overlapping, and self-reinforcing explanation of the universe and its local inhabitants."

DeToma has published his research in numerous scholarly journals and has coauthored two textbooks.